Chapter 953 - The Leizhou Experience

Five hundred prisoner laborers from the Chengmai campaign, working alongside temporarily conscripted civilian workers, hurriedly constructed a wharf at Haikou harbor's Jiazi Coal Mine dedicated pier for unloading heavy equipment. The advance detachment of the First Maritime Mobile Regiment's logistics and maintenance equipment was offloaded from the ships.

The First Mobile Regiment's encampment was established outside Qiongshan County Town. Due to the large quantity of equipment and substantial coal requirements, the entire regiment's camp was built using field fortification methods. All provisions were unloaded from ships, and even the coal for the equipment was premium Hongji power coal specifically shipped from Lingao.

The first batch of agricultural technicians trained by the Tiandihui carried wooden stakes and ropes for marking plots, following surveyors' commands to stake out land parcels on the flood-receded terrain, demarcating the first of the Agricultural Committee's directly managed estates.

Besides the directly managed farms, similar work was underway on the fields contracted by the Tiandihui. After parcels were measured and marked, the agricultural machinery formally entered to begin clearing fields and undertaking basic farmland construction. The floodwaters had left behind a layer of river sand and debris, and clearing the fields alone consumed enormous time and labor. The First Mobile Regiment's tractors belched black smoke and white steam, their iron bodies clanking with metallic percussion as they slowly crawled across the sodden fields. Whenever this happened, the field edges would fill with crowds of gaping locals—from silk-clad gentry to half-naked disaster refugees.

Chang Shide requisitioned a portion of the former Qiongzhou Arsenal buildings inside Qiongshan County Town. A signboard for the Tiandihui Qiongshan Branch was hung at the office entrance—which was also, of course, the as-yet-unofficial location of the Qiongshan County Agricultural Bureau.

Under his direct command, the Tiandihui then launched a comprehensive propaganda offensive across Qiongshan.

Unlike the previous labor recruitment campaign, this offensive's primary purpose was to entice the local populace—whether farmers or landlords—to join the Tiandihui's "Agricultural Cooperative" system.

The agricultural cooperative system was not the same as the cooperatives established in the 1950s in the old timeline. Chang Shide believed that given the current level of agricultural development, implementing high-level mutual aid and cooperation would be quite difficult. The peasantry's dispersed nature was ill-suited to cooperative systems lacking binding constraints. Therefore, the agricultural cooperative he had developed in Leizhou was modeled on the Japanese style: farmers joined voluntarily, participating farmers had to accept the cooperative's technical guidance, and the cooperative would uniformly provide seeds, compound fertilizers, and pest control. When necessary, the cooperative would also provide agricultural machinery services—including mechanized harvesting, irrigation, and field drainage. Agricultural products were sold collectively through the cooperative organization.

All these services and provided agricultural materials carried fees, but payment could be deferred until after harvest—naturally with some interest calculated. Through Delong, the cooperative also provided small loans, with farmers able to use land or future harvests as collateral.

Since farmers had almost no cash on hand, they inevitably had to resort to various small loans during production. This was also why rural usury had always flourished. Now this lending was provided by the agricultural cooperative instead. Using credit to control and exploit farmers was the first objective. The second objective was to strike at rural usury, clean up the rural economic environment, and prepare the ground for Delong's large-scale entry into the countryside.

The Tiandihui's agricultural cooperative did not admit landless farmers—pure tenant farmers and hired laborers were not within the cooperative's recruitment scope. The targets for recruitment were yeoman farmers and small to medium landlords.

Beyond this, landowners managed their own land operations; the cooperative did not interfere—it merely provided "guidance" and "assistance." Chang Shide believed this was the ideal approach for dealing with small yeoman farmers at the current stage.

Under this system, though farmers received considerable benefits, their disaster resilience had not fundamentally improved. They remained in a very vulnerable position. On the surface, they had escaped the rapacious, unscrupulous rural usurers, but in reality they had fallen into an even more complex and pervasive loan network managed by the cooperative. Any mismanagement could lead to an inability to repay credit.

According to Chang Shide's experience in Leizhou, under this system, yeoman farmers would polarize even faster: some—those who were shrewd, skilled at farming, owned more land, and managed well—would leverage the Tiandihui's various support services to distinguish themselves in agricultural production and gradually rise. Others would sink deeper into trouble through endless "loans," ultimately losing their land. Of course, once they had no choice but to surrender their land to the Tiandihui in repayment, the Tiandihui would mercifully arrange for the entire household to work as agricultural or industrial workers on directly managed farms.

Though the Spartacus Collective had published a series of critiques specifically targeting the so-called "Leizhou Experience" and the "Agricultural Cooperative System" in their society journal Red Flag—Four Critiques of the Leizhou Experience had explicitly declared that the "Leizhou Experience" was a poisonous weed of cultivating new landlords and promoting "neo-rich-peasant ideology"—this experience was fully consistent with the Senate's agricultural policy and thus received strong encouragement from the Executive Committee, becoming an important model for promotion.

Under Chang Shide's arrangements, the Propaganda Department erected large billboards outside all three gates of Qiongshan County Town, using pictures and text to publicize to the people of Qiongshan that "the Agricultural Cooperative is great."

Since farmers generally couldn't read, the billboards were mostly paintings, charts, and printed photographs. Before the billboards stood large display platforms, on which were arranged sand tables, various new farm tools, fertilizer samples, seeds, and crop specimens.

Ji Denggao led lion dance and gong-and-drum troupes, putting on performances every hour to attract viewers. Beside the billboards, large platters of rice balls wrapped in perilla leaves—each the size of a ping-pong ball—were being made on the spot. Everyone who came to hear the propaganda received one rice ball. This tactic attracted swarms of villagers from the surrounding countryside. Many families chased their children out first thing in the morning: "Quick, go to the county gate to get rice balls!"

The lure of rice balls meant massive crowds gathered before the billboards every day, eating rice balls while gawking at the strange sights. Ji Denggao was experienced with such scenes: everyone who wanted a rice ball had to collect a bamboo token before listening to the propaganda. After listening, they turned in the token to a worker, received a rice ball, and got a stamp on their arm in blue ink. This indigo-based ink could remain on skin for several days—effectively preventing anyone from cycling through all three gates to collect multiple rice balls.

To ensure no other schemes occurred, soldiers from the First Infantry Battalion provided a security perimeter, maintaining order and apprehending anyone organizing groups to fraudulently obtain rice balls or using violence to rob them.

Chang Shide knew that nearly everyone looking at the billboards came for the rice balls, but he wasn't concerned. These rice balls cost little—he just wanted to create momentum and spread news of the Tiandihui's agricultural cooperative throughout the surrounding villages as quickly as possible. In an era where communication basically relied on shouting, nothing was faster than word of mouth. Besides, he had some confidence in the propaganda methods at the Cultural Propaganda Department's disposal.

On the billboards were large propaganda paintings and photographs depicting the "new look" achieved after implementing the agricultural cooperative. The paintings, naturally, were rendered like paradise on earth—in industry parlance, "all concept art." Additionally, there were numerous photographs—all carefully selected shots of "new countryside models" from several directly managed communes: orderly houses, straight roads, herds of pigs and sheep, and "scenes of happy life"—inevitably featuring new-style stoves, gas lamps, and the farmers' meals.

Besides images promoting "Join the Tiandihui, Start a New Life," there were many agricultural technology diagrams—such as raising fish and ducks in rice paddies, rice-mulberry intercropping, biogas pits, and sparse planting in rice paddies. The display platforms featured meticulously crafted model sand tables made by modeling enthusiasts among the Elders: panoramic "new countryside" models, "courtyard economy three-dimensional displays," "Australian-style integrated farm structure diagrams," and "agricultural tool and machinery usage models."

The visitors had never seen such lifelike images, let alone such exquisite models. Each was utterly captivated. When they saw the displayed new farm tools and crops, many showed intense interest—those thick corn cobs, robust rice panicles, plump grains...

Besides those who already knew something of "Australian farming methods," many had come initially just for the rice balls. After being "baptized" at the billboards, their hearts were moved, and they began asking the workers about the specifics of the Tiandihui's practices. The workers answered every question, giving ten answers for every one asked, each displaying the enthusiasm of multi-level marketers as they extolled the various benefits of joining the Tiandihui:

"Your fields were flooded and you've lost the harvest? Can't pay taxes? No problem—the Tiandihui has loans. We can pay your taxes first, and you pay us back after next year's harvest. Interest is negotiable—one percent per year, much cheaper than borrowing in your village.

"Your crops were a total loss? Our Tiandihui provides replanting services. All members get seedlings provided. What—you don't have money? No problem, put it on credit. Pay after you harvest!

"The flood washed away your fields? No problem! We have the great iron ox. We'll till your land first. Price is negotiable—put it on credit for now.

"This week is our Tiandihui's promotional week. Anyone who signs up this week gets a flat five percent discount on service fees, plus one free field-tilling service!

"Too expensive? How about this—you introduce a few more households to join our Tiandihui. Sign up one referral and I'll reduce your service fees by five percent. No cap—bring in twenty and your whole year is free!"

Under the workers' silver tongues, many yeoman farmers and small to medium landlords left destitute by the disaster were moved. By the third day of the propaganda campaign, sign-up rates began to climb.

(End of Chapter)